1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective case for protecting resin or other suitable material used for an external appearance surface of a personal computer (PC) card, a Compact Flash™ (CF) card, or other suitable device, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an appearance protective case for protecting a marked pattern or other indicia printed on the appearance surface thereof and an appearance protective-case-assembly including the appearance protective case.
2. Description of the Related Art
A PC card, a memory stick, a multimedia card, a CF card, and other such devices are widely used as a memory card or an I/O card for use in a personal computer and for communication and/or industrial use. Each such card or device has a marking pattern such as a logo that is painted or printed (hereinafter, simply referred to as printed) thereon.
Previously, a resin case has been used as an external appearance surface of an extension (i.e., a portion for storing a transmitting antenna or other element) of a PC card or a CF card. Also, the front surface of the resin case has been treated for better appearance with embossing for having a satin pattern formed thereon, with painting, or with silk-screen printing, or has had a marked pattern such as a mark or a logo printed thereon.
In the case of painting, although it is easy to paint the entire surface of the case with a single color, when a pattern is painted with two or three colors or when it is required to refrain from applying a paint material on the rear surface thereof, a masking step is needed, and also a masking jig and a masking tape are needed, thereby resulting in additional working tools and an additional working step. In addition, insufficient masking sometimes causes a stain to be produced in the boundary between the masking tape and the paint, thereby leading to deteriorated appearance.
In the case of silk-screen printing, it is necessary to print an individual product of the resin cases piece by piece with a screen plate, thereby causing a complicated work. Also, the number of steps of silk-screen printing increases as the number of colors increases, thereby resulting in an increased work load.
In addition, when the resin case is treated with embossing, although its appearance quality can be improved by changing the visual appearance of its surface, it is impossible to change its color by changing its reflection characteristics with embossing. As a result, there is a limit to the amount of expressiveness that can be achieved.
In any of the above-described methods, since a marked pattern or other indicia is printed on the front surface of the resin case, rubbing or deterioration during use causes the marked pattern or indicia to be eventually erased.
To solve the above-described problem, a method in which a transparent case is used and the inner surface of the case is treated with painting or printing has been proposed. However, since this method has drawbacks such as a very difficult masking work, an extraordinarily increased number of working steps, and a dirty appearance due to pooled ink produced during painting, this method has not been implemented.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. 5-29744, there is a method in which a decorative sheet has a transparent surface layer formed on the front surface thereof and is drawn by pneumatic molding and then is cut, and the cut decorative sheet is inserted into a molded component so as to assemble a cover case. However, this method has drawbacks such as the requirement that an additional step of setting the drawn and cut sheet to be molded in a molding die be performed, and a damaged appearance of the decorative sheet caused by heat and a shearing force applied on the sheet to be molded during insert-forming.